Why Did Germany and Japan Form an Alliance

Alliances during a war can change the outcome, but the alliance between Japan and Germany is an alliance that baffles many people. Most people can understand why Japan went to war with America, but why did the imperial nation join forces with Nazi Germany? To understand the tripartite pact that created the Axis powers, we must go back further in history. JAKARTA – Today, September 27, 1940, the Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan, consolidated their alliance by signing the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. The deal was actually an attempt by the Nazis to build strength in the Eastern European region before the Pacific War broke out. But why should Japan, a non-European country, join? After the First World War, Germany was in a very bad position. He was forced by the Allies and the newly formed League of Nations to sign a terribly harsh treaty that brought down the German government and economy, and this was ultimately to be the cause of the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party. Contrary to his actual plans, Hitler`s concept of deadlock – combined with his frustration with a Japan entangled in seemingly endless negotiations with the United States and leaning against war with the USSR[44] – led to temporary cooperation with the Soviets in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939. Neither Japan nor Italy had previously been informed of Germany`s pact with the Soviets, demonstrating the constant subliminal distrust between Nazi Germany and its partners. After all, the pact not only established the division of Poland and the Baltic states between the two signatories in a secret protocol, but also made the anti-Comintern pact more or less irrelevant. To remove the pressure on German-Japanese relations caused by Hitler`s decision, the Japan-Germany Cultural Cooperation Agreement was signed in November 1939, just weeks after Germany and the Soviet Union had completed their invasion of Poland and Britain and France had declared war on Germany. [45] Towards the end of September 1941, there were fears that Japan would not start hostilities against the USSR in the east, thus liberating the Red Army divisions stationed in Siberia to defend Moscow. In October 1941, Sorge was unmasked by the Japanese and arrested. Apparently, German Ambassador Eugen Ott trusted him completely and he had access to top secret cables from Berlin to the embassy in Tokyo.

This participation eventually led Heinrich Georg Stahmer to replace Ott in January 1943. Sorge, on the other hand, was executed in November 1944 and elevated to the status of national hero in the Soviet Union. [64] On April 2, 2011, German Foreign Minister Westerwelle visited Tokyo on a trip to Asia and again offered Japan “all necessary assistance” to recover from the tsunami and the nuclear disaster that followed the previous month. Westerwelle also stressed the importance of moving towards a free trade agreement between Japan and the European Union in order to accelerate the recovery of the Japanese economy. Together with his German counterpart, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto also discussed possible new areas of cooperation between Tokyo and Berlin to reform the UN Security Council. [122] Since Nazi Germany had not only conquered most of continental Europe, including France, but had also maintained the impression of an imminent victory for Britain,[48] Tokyo interpreted the situation in Europe as evidence of a fundamental and fatal weakness in Western democracies. Japanese leaders concluded that the current situation should be exploited[44] and then began to seek even closer cooperation with Berlin. Hitler, for his part, feared not only a permanent stalemate with Britain, but had also begun planning an invasion of the Soviet Union.

These circumstances, combined with a shortage of raw materials and food,[49] increased Berlin`s interest in a stronger alliance with Japan. German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was sent to negotiate a new treaty with Japan, whose relations with Germany and Italy, the three future “Axis powers,” were cemented by the Tripartite Pact of September 27, 1940. If you attend a school in Japan today, it is still based on the ancient Prussian system. Look at school uniforms. For the most part, there are military uniforms for boys and sailor uniforms for girls. Everything in Prussian society revolved around the creation of the largest fighting force in Europe, which it did at spades. In talks with Hitler, his foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, his Japanese counterpart at the time, Yōsuke Matsuoka, and the respective ambassadors of Berlin and Tokyo, Eugen Ott and Hiroshi Ōshima, the German side then widely implied, but never openly demanded an invasion of the Soviet Union from the east or an attack on the British colonies in Southeast Asia. This torments and distracts the British Empire from Europe and thus somewhat sticks Germany`s back. [35] Although Germany would have clearly supported Japan`s attack on the USSR, exchanges between the two Allies were always maintained excessively formal and indirect, as shown by Hitler`s following statement to Ambassador Ōshima (June 2, 1941): In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Germany and Japan were respectively the second and third largest donors to the United Nations. called for reform of the UN Security Council and an increase in its permanent membership. To this end, the two nations, along with Brazil and India, have organized themselves into “G4 nations.” On 21 September 2004, the G4 issued a joint statement in which, together with two African countries, they supported each other on the demand for permanent seats. This proposal was met with resistance from a group of countries called Uniting for Consensus.

In January 2006, Japan announced that it would not support putting the G4 resolution back on the table and was working on its own resolution. [108] Researchers are constantly puzzled about Japan`s alliance with Germany during World War II. The decline and fall of the Axis alliance began in 1943. In September 1941, Japan began its southward expansion by expanding its military presence to southern Indochina (“securing the points of support”[44]) and greatly increased the number of stationed personnel and aircraft. This prompted the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments to freeze Japanese assets, while the United States (which supplied 80% of Japanese oil)[65] responded with a complete oil embargo against the Japanese Empire. [66] As a result, Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in Southeast Asia and continuing the war against China or forcibly seizing the natural resources it needed. The Japanese military did not see the former as an option, as the attack on Soviet Russia instead of expansion into South Asia had become an increasingly unpopular choice since Japan`s humiliating defeat at the Battle of Khalkin Gol in 1939 and the final rejection of any short-term action in Siberia shortly after the german invasion of the USSR began. Moreover, many officers viewed the U.S. oil embargo as a tacit declaration of war. [67] With the harsh oil sanctions imposed by the United States, Japanese leaders were now even more determined to stay in China. Germany had refused to sell Japan the plans to produce synthetic fuel, so Japan`s only hope for oil was to invade the Dutch East Indies, which would lead to a war with the United States and Britain.

.